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Groth's Rising
Taking place in Olympia, the capital of Washington State, Groth's Rising is a Chronicle detailing the pursuit of Cornelia Groth by her childe Ronan Duncan. More specifically, Ronan Duncan is attempting to track down his sanguinary relatives, while also cleaning up the various messes left by his sire (naturally, avoiding cleaning up the messes he leaves in his wake). Olympia Clausen's Folly Ronan Duncan initially signed on with the Blood Brothers MC, a 1%er motorcycle club lead by the Gangrel Lucas Clausen. After a series of events, including a drive-by performed by a rival MC, Ronan quickly shifted loyalties. After a brief meeting with Frank Griffin, the 8th Gen Brujah in charge of the Coyotes Portland MC, it was decreed that the Blood Brothers must go. Abandoning Lucas, Ronan used his political connections to have him arrested for illegal contraband upon returning from a successful run of Russian military-grade weapons to Sacramento. This gave Frank the opportunity to extract Lucas from custody and put an end to his short reign. On November 2nd, 1997 Lucas Clausen was marched in front of a crowd of nearly 30 Kindred from all over Olympia and the surrounding territories. He was executed by Frank Griffin, for the murder of his brother. After his execution, Frank declared Olympia a Free Barony and that once again Olympia was back under rightful Commonwealth rule. The Childe Cornelia Groth's escapades across America were mostly violent, completely irresponsible, and bordering on the apocalyptic. The Golden Dawn was no exception. Some hundred fifty years ago, Groth came across a budding new Sorcerer's guild. Sensing potential in the young wizards, Groth set them down a ultimately destructive path of opening up portals to other worlds. Ronan had since discovered Groth's involvement with this group, and decided to infiltrate their beach-front estate. It was here that Ronan Duncan would Embrace his first childe, Daniel Roman Scott. Daniel Scott was an alchemist for the Order; mostly brewing stamina enhancing potions to increase the durability of human vessels for new portals. Daniel however, having been Embraced, lost his connection to his Magical know-how, and tried his best to convert what he knew into Blood Magic. Over the course of a month and a half, Daniel would far surpass all expectations and very quickly adapt to his newfound blood powers. The Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn Groth's involvement with the Order ultimately brought Ronan back into contact with them. After hiring a Private Investigator to monitor the estate grounds, the PI managed to snap pictures of werewolves infiltrating the compound. Daniel had previously mentioned the estate was mostly warded against werewolves, and not vampires - which admittedly attributed to Ronan's easy come-and-go of the grounds. However these photos would reveal a more disturbing truth, at least for Daniel. These wolves had gotten past the outer warding, and smashed into the inner grounds. The werewolf pack eradicated the anti-lupine warding and slaughtered their way through the house. Ronan & Daniel naturally, went to investigate. Upon sneaking through a drainage pipe for the greenhouses, the two arrived on grounds to find things abnormally quiet. The wolves had failed in their attack. This was punctuated by two ritualists digging graves for werewolf corpses. It was here that Ronan decided to dismantle this portal business once and for all. After watching for what seemed like hours, the pair split off, one heading towards the house and the other staying back to smoke a cigarette. The ritualist that stayed behind was promptly ambushed by Ronan & Daniel, and after a brief exchange, Ronan put a gun in the ritualist's mouth and pulled the trigger. The gunshot alerted the other, who promptly came out with a shotgun. The three then entered a chase through a dead-of-night forest, which Ronan had won. With the (now revealed) lead ritualist dead, the operation on opening up portals to other planets was severely diminished. The Road to Vancouver With the death of Lucas Clausen, and the dismantlement of the BBMC, Ronan Duncan was given free reign to pursue his original intention - find his sanguinary relatives. After coming up with a list of potential candidates, it was decided that Victoria Alexopolous was to be the next lead to follow. Living up in Vancouver, Ronan decided to leave Olympia and head to Canada. By this time, he had met with the then Vyacheslav, who rode along with him to Vancouver at the behest of his Domitor, Martina. Ronan's gargoyle, Bartholomew, had decided that Ronan was not to leave without his protection, despite his disgust with Tzimisce. Upon arriving in Vancouver the three were stopped by a werewolf checkpoint. Bartholomew frenzied, attacking the wolves and killing the first one before he could even change. The other managed to finish his transformation before Bartholomew took a swing at him. A brief battle ensured, Bartholomew killing the garou-formed werewolf, while Ronan killed the Wolf-Blooded police officers. While the battle was finished, Bartholomew was severely hurt, and near death. They decided to lay low for a while and hunt a bit, before making their way into Vancouver proper. Prince Siegfried Like all great independent Princedoms, Vyacheslav made his appearance with the Prince to talk tribute. However, the Kindred-Uratha Pact specifically stated that only 1 vampire may enter the city at any time. Since not only three had come, but killed two werewolves and two Wolf Blooded in the process, Ronan and Bartholomew laid low. Prince Siegfried, a Gaul who helped sack Rome, was actually expecting Vyacheslav. Martina had dispatched the young Ghoul to Vancouver to help secure a non-aggression pact between the Mother's Army and Prince Siegfried. The Sibling While the two discussed business, Ronan had hunted enough for Bartholomew to heal and return home, not wanting to have any further incidents. Ronan then set about tracking down his hiding relative. After racking up debt with the Nosferatu, Ronan eventually found his sanguinary relative. Victoria, living as a college student in the University of Vancouver, rebuffed Ronan's advances. Not wanting anything to do with Groth or her childer, Victoria proved to be remarkably difficult to convince. After an unsuccessful exchange, Victoria gave Ronan the location of another one of their siblings, before packing her things and leaving for a different city. Now scattered to the wind, Victoria is gone but Ronan now had a name: Kenneth Howard of Calgary. Internal Strife Prince Siegfried reluctantly agreed to the non-aggression proposal. However, Vyacheslav would have to do something in return. Someone was ambushing and killing werewolf protectors on the roads in and out of Vancouver; something the Uratha alphas were not happy with. Pressure from the wolves and lack of reliable internal assets pushed Siegfried into using a Ghoul and an illegal vampire to help put an end to the ambushes. Their first lead was to investigate the abandoned manor of the (now) dead Stalest, an old Camarilla infiltrator that attempted to overthrow Siegfriend some ten years back. The Abyss Upon arriving at the manor, they found it abandoned with signs of recent use. In the main study, a ritual circle that seemed to be a blending of kindred blood magics and werewolf ritualism was found. In the bathroom, the rotting corpse of a near-garou werewolf was found lying in the bathtub, drained from the throat. After coming across similar scenes throughout the house, a cellar was eventually found that lead into a series of underground labyrinthine catacombs. Not long after opening the door, a disease ridden rotting werewolf charged the group and they fled the house, nearly being torn to shreds in the process. After some debate, the presence of Ronan had to be made aware to Siegfried. They brought the evidence in together, and presented their case. The Trial When the two arrived at Siegfried's office overlooking the city, they found a group of Uratha alphas already discussing something with the Prince. After a few moments, the meeting ended and the two were able to present their findings. After a brief discussion of the events that transpired in the manor, the matter of Ronan's infiltration of the city was brought full ahead. Bending to pressure from the pack alphas, Siegfried was forced to report the presence of a treaty violation to the alphas, and judgement was to be rendered. Ronan was taken into custody, and Vyacheslav set his plans in motion. A tribunal was to be formed, consisting of the following: * 3 Alphas, from the Blood Talon, Iron Master, and Bone Shadow tribes. * 3 Kindred; Prince Siegfried, a Camarilla representative, and Vyacheslav. Typically, Vancouver was a neutral ground. One vampire in at a time, and the Uratha had the authority to decide when the number of kindred coming in was too many. The Camarilla representative was there at the behest of the Pyramid, as Ronan was a rogue Tremere. Siegfried ultimately allowed this, as pressure from both Uratha and the Camarilla were not something the Prince wanted or needed right now. After a lengthy several hour long discussion between the opposing groups, back and forths between Uratha, Kindred, and Ghoul, Ronan did not make his case. The rule of law held too firmly. Despite their actions to uncover a more sinister issue within the city, the alphas would not break the compact. The wolves attempted to take Ronan into their custody to administer execution. However, the timely intervention of an old Nosferatu friend gave the Camarilla representative the information he needed to secure custody of Ronan and bring him into Camarilla hands. Jail Break By this point in time Vyacheslav had already left the room to begin planning. He pulled favors from all the various factions he could get his hands on. Even Siegfried agreed to hinder the Camarilla's movements by forcing them to take to the seas, instead of the air. A small army, collected from Gugger's Boys, Martina, the Kuhl Family, and Ronan's Gargoyles had been assembled. They gathered on a stormy night, and assaulted the Camarilla escort. Mother's Army won out in the end, and both sides paid a heavy price. The Camarilla lost over a dozen Archons, and the Tremere Justicar. Mother's Army lost almost all of the Tzimisce Knights, half of Gugger's Boys, and Thaddeus - the childe of Bartholomew. However, Ronan had been liberated from Camarilla hands. Torpor Despite the lengthy boat battle, the remaining Archons and the Tremere Justicar retreated to the lower hold, where Ronan's body was being held. A standoff of sorts was formed, as the Archons called for backup while threatening to end Ronan's life. Gugger was the first one to jump down, disregarding the Archon's warnings. The Archon in the blink of an eye, plunged his sword into Ronan three separate times. This nearly ended Ronan's life on its own. However the Camarilla were overwhelmed and eventually put into torpor. The Archons and Tremere Justicar were captured, and brought back to Seattle to face their judgement at the hands of Mother's Army. Ronan Duncan now lay in torpor for over six months. In this time, Daniel Scott was captured and brought in before Martina by Vyacheslav. With clever uses of Vicissitude and Dementation, Daniel was made to be a perfect replica of the Commonwealth Baron Frank C. Griffin, and dispatched down to Olympia to take control of Griffin's biker gang. Vyacheslav, having performed admirably, was given the Embrace by his Domitor Martina, and brought into the Von Costentz family as a full Tzimisce. He was now the right hand of both Martina Von Costentz, the most powerful Tzimisce on this side of the country, and a high ranking member of the Mother's Army.